Recently, a couple of massive hurricanes hit the U.S. mainland and caused severe damage and loss of life. As it turns out, I was in the path of one of them, and actually had to evacuate my house as it came near our area. In this one, we were without power for nearly two days. That said, we were very fortunate as the hurricane passed far enough to our East, and was over land long enough before getting up our way, that we did not receive the greatest impact.
As it approached, however, I kept seeing comments on social media that were posted by Christians that we should “pray the storm out of our area.” Now believe me, I was all for God keeping it from hitting me. The problem is, by it not hitting me directly, it was necessary that it hit some other people worse. So, if I were to sincerely pray that prayer, I would, by default, be praying for God to direct the hurricane to hit other people instead of me. There is, obviously, a problem with that kind of prayer; and that problem has to do with not understanding the overall ways and purpose of God, as well as the nature of the material world we live in.
We have the exact same problem when it comes to those who believe in what is called “Health & Wealth” theology (also often referred to as “The Prosperity Gospel” or “Name It and Claim It”). This is the belief that financial blessing and physical well-being are always the will of God, and those who have enough faith can always be prosperous and healthy. They believe that faith, positive speech, and donations to religious causes will increase people’s health and material wealth.
Emphasis on Temporal Blessings
Neither of the examples above reflect biblical theology. They both begin with the belief that God’s greatest purpose for mankind has to do with material blessing. This is not to say that prosperity and health are bad, or that God never blesses in a material way. However, when these things become the test for whether or not God is blessing an individual, one has strayed very far from the central message of the Bible.
God did not create us for health and wealth. He created us to have fellowship with himself, and any theological focus that strays from that central premise is not of God. There are many people who have no money but are blessed by God. In fact, in order to accomplish his greater purpose, he even calls some to poverty. God has a plan for each person’s life, and his calling to fulfill that plan is focused on human relationship with him, not on a temporal life situation. In the same way, there are many people who have poor health that God has and is using in some very profound ways – ways that would be impossible if they were healthy.
The Effects from the Fall
In some ways, it does seem natural to think about blessings of God in ways that most immediately touch our material lives; after all, we live in a material world. However, that kind of thinking does not reflect ultimate reality. If the material world was all that existed, that kind of thinking would certainly have merit. However, the fullness of reality includes an eternal realm that is based on principles and laws that go beyond what exists in our material reality. In God’s economy, eternal laws supercede material laws, and God’s purpose supercedes human desires.
The reason that sickness, human distress, and various kinds of depravity exist is because we live in a fallen world where the effects of sin envelop all of life. The ultimate source of this sin on earth was the rebellion of Adam and Eve against God. Their disobedience opened the material creation to sin which, in turn, created a degenerating effect on the entirety of God’s creation; it began the crumbling of life, the soiling of the human spirit, and the degeneration of the material creation itself. Parts of this relate to human illness and disease, as well as the degradation of the life circumstances of people as they live their lives.
Eternal Blessings – God’s Real Purpose
While most people generally think of their need (and thus their prayer requests) in material terms, the truth is, God’s purpose for mankind is personal and relational, not material. This is not meant, in any sense, to imply that God does not give material blessings, or that it is wrong to ask him for things that relate to our material lives. The world we live in is material, and we cannot avoid engaging it; and truthfully, God is pleased when we do. But we are not merely talking about the expression of blessing itself – we are talking about purpose.
God’s purpose for us is always personal and relational, and any material benefits we receive are to fit into that purpose. When we think of God’s purpose in material terms, we totally miss the actual blessing he want’s to provide. So let’s look at health and prosperity based on God’s purpose.
Health
Obviously, good health is the ideal that everyone strives for. It is also the state that represents the ideal wholeness that God originally created mankind to live in. However, the circumstance of our human situation changed with the Fall. Humanity no longer lives in the ideal environment that God created. This does not change his ideal desire, but it does change the dynamic as it relates to how the ideal is expressed.
God did not originally create mankind for the purpose of having good health. He created us for relationship with himself; it just so happened that perfect health existed in that original environment. When the Fall occurred, God’s purpose did not change, but the circumstance did. Now that we live in a fallen world, instead of a perfect one, God has to work through the fallenness to accomplish his purpose. In a fallen world, illness, disease, and death happens. Sometimes he does heal illness and disease, but even that is temporary. Other times he uses illness, disease, and death to accomplish a bigger purpose – the promotion of a personal relationship with himself.
Prosperity
God does not provide prosperity for us merely that we may enjoy material prosperity; he provides it so that we can accomplish his purpose for our life in the world. God’s purpose is not fulfilled when people become materially prosperous. It is fulfilled when they engage him in intimate fellowship. You have to remember that no believer has his or her own resources. When we take the step to enter into a relationship with God, we make him our Lord. When we give our lives to him, we give the entirety of our being to him. At that point, we cease to be the owner of our life and property, and we become God’s steward (manager). He owns everything and we own nothing. At that point, our job becomes one of managing the resources he places in our trust according to his purposes. It is up to us, at that point, to discern how he wants us to use those resources to accomplish his purpose. There are some he entrusts with a lot, and others he entrusts with little. But his purpose is not found in the amount he entrusts us with; it is found in our faithfulness in how we manage it based on his will.
Don’t Be Deceived
I would never be one to belittle the many blessings God pours out on my life, or on other people’s lives. The problem is, many of the things people identify as blessings are not from God, and many of the things people identify as afflictions are blessings from God. The place where mistakes are made in identifying blessing does not lie in the things themselves, but in the underlying purpose God is trying to accomplish through the things.
God certainly does want to bless us, but many times what we call blessing is nothing more than personal gratification. God’s purpose is not to merely satisfy our personal desires, but to make us into persons who fulfill his purpose through our lives. Sometimes it takes difficulty and suffering to build our character and make us into the person God wants us to be. Sometimes it takes personal sacrifice for God to use our lives to impact the lives of others, or even society in general.
If your entire concept of blessing relates to temporal matters that merely provide you with personal gratification, you have been deceived by Satan. God’s purpose for your life is so much greater than that. And until you are able to grasp that concept and incorporate it into your life, you will be unable to truly receive God’s greatest blessings. But when you do, your life will no longer be focused inwardly. Rather, you will become a magnificent vessel that God will use to impact a dying world.
© 2017 Freddy Davis